What I Learned at TechCrunch Disrupt

Much of the attention went to politicians and government officials, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

I spent some time last week at a couple of technology conferences in New York, including TechCrunch Disrupt, which was notable for its speakers in addition to a bunch of new products that were competing on stage.

Much of the attention went to politicians and government officials, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. In this post, I'll cover the broader concepts, while focusing more on new products in the next one.

De Blasio Pushes for Inclusive TechnologyDe Blasio talked about how the technology community in New York has grown, and said he saw a tremendous opportunity for tech companies in New York to "make us a better and fairer city." Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg built a strong foundation in technology, he said, including a Cornell Technion graduate school, but de Blasio pushed for technology to be more inclusive and diverse.

In an effort to boost talent, access, and innovation in the city, de Blasio announced a $70 million plan for additional investment in STEM programs at CUNY and another plan to spend $70 million over the next 10 years on broadband infrastructure as part of his "OneNYC" initiative. In addition, he touted the hiring of the city's first CTO and his belief that innovation in technology can help solve nagging problems within the city.

"This city can't be a place of inclusion if so many of our fellow New Yorkers don't have access to broadband," de Blasio said.

He went on to say that technology companies have an opportunity to combat inequality and urged them to hire graduates of public schools and universities in New York.

Fiorina Pushes Tech to Transform Government On the other side of the aisle, former HP CEO and current presidential candidate Carly Fiorina also talked about the possibilities of using technology to transform government. "Technology is a disruptive force, so maybe we should use it to disrupt the government," she said, saying she wanted to use technology as a tool to reimage government and re-engage people who feel disconnected from the society.

Asked about how the technology of today compares to when she was running HP starting in the late 1990s, she said that back then, we were at the beginning of a long, 30-40 year trend that is transforming everything that is physical to "digital, mobile, virtual, and personal" – and that is the trend we are still on. (Indeed, she used that phrase repeatedly when I talked to her as CEO of HP.) She said digital and mobile have happened, with the virtual and personal trends still happening. She also said that now was a "frothy time," in technology markets, with lots of money going into applications and not enough into manufacturing innovation.

"We are trying to see balance between all that we can do and all that we should do," Fiorina said, saying 80-95 percent of what people spend time doing on digital is superficial. She wonders what might happen if, in addition to voting for American Idol or The Voice, people could use technology to give input on policy decisions.

Fiorina said it was "important to have someone who has a fundamental vision of how technology can be used." She came out hard against the FCC's recent net neutrality ruling, saying the government shouldn't be regulating innovation with some bureaucracy. She said she would roll back the 400 pages of regulations, and said she didn't think the FCC really took the public's comments into consideration. In addition, she said she opposed the Innovation Act (which would change the patent laws in a way to reduce litigation) saying it was written by big companies and she was worried about the consequences for smaller firms.

In general, she said all regulation makes big things bigger, which is why she said "we are now destroying more businesses than we are creating." She said she wants government to get out of complex regulations, but to invest more in basic platform research, such as the initial research that led to DARPAnet and later the Internet. "Regulation over innovation is a bad goal for government," she said.

Wheeler Defends FCC's Net Neutrality Ruling FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler spent most of his discussion focused on the topic of net neutrality and the FCC's recent decision to regulate Internet access under Title II. "On June 12th, there will be in place the strongest open internet protection that anyone has ever imagined and we shouldn't be going backwards from that," he said. Many of the big broadband providers are suing the FCC over the rules, but he said he "feels pretty confident on the outcome of the court cases" because earlier rules, which were thrown out by the court, hadn't invoked Title II.

The FCC received 4 million comments on the topic – 75 percent in support of net neutrality – but "this isn't an area where you make a decision based on bulk," he said. Rather, the FCC had to follow the Communications Act statute as written. If Congress disagrees with the regulations, it has the right to change the statute, he said.

Investors and Entrepreneurs Of course, most of the show wasn't given over to politicians, but to investors and entrepreneurs, and I found some of the discussions quite interesting.

Investors Ron Conway of SV Angel and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures encouraged the technology audience to get more involved in their communities.

Wilson said he thought many people in technology thought making products was enough to help change the world, but said they should reach beyond that in efforts to shape their world. Conway talked about a project called SF City in San Francisco which initially focused on lobbying, but is now focused on volunteerism with a project in which tech companies can "adopt a school" under the direction of the school's principal.

Wilson talked about the need for a focus both on K-12 public school students and "making sure that you are teaching them the skills they are going to need for this century versus last century" as well as adult education, which he said was harder but still critical. Conway acknowledged the housing issues in San Francisco, saying it worried the tech industry as well, since it hired many entry level workers for each engineer.

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media, responsible for overseeing the editorial positions of Ziff Davis's magazines, websites, and events. As Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Publishing since 1997, Miller took an active role in...
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